crawling towards yarn

this year is the 4th annual chicago yarn crawl. it's like a pub crawl, but instead of visiting dirty, sweat-and-beer-smelling bars and getting drunk, you go to independent yarn shops in the Chicago metro area over the course of a week and buy yarn! you get a passport, and you get a stamp from each store you go to. there are 30 stores participating this year and they all have at least 10% off their stuff. i knew about it last year, but didn't get my shit together enough to participate. this year, however, i am crawling (yarn) balls deep.

the crawl this year started on Saturday, August 3. my sister and i had planned on going to our favorite LYS (local yarn store, to you n00bs) when they opened at 10am. one my knitting friends on FB said that she was going at 9:00am to be the of the first in. what is this? tickets to a NIN show? i mentioned this to shannon and she seemed not worried at all. she thought that we would be ok to be one of the first 50 people to get a grab bag. oh-kaaaay, i said.

the next morning, i got up at 8. i poked her awake at 8:30 and said, "amanda is going to be there at 9."

her reply: "good for her." then she rolled over and went back to sleep. hmph. some fiber junky you are.

so i dicked around for an hour. we left at about 9:50. then she asked if i was going to drive. it's like 4 blocks away! then she said, "well be even more late." ????! i then mentioned to her that i wanted to go at 9am, but little miss sleeps-alot couldn't be arsed to get out of bed. but since we wanted to hit more than one knitting store, i drove anyway.

so the first store we hit is Sifu. there was a goddamn line to the door. hmph indeed. it was a little confusing because some people were buying stuff (Lisa, the owner, was having 25% that day), and some people were just getting their passports stamped and entering in her raffle. but you had to buy something to get the grab bag. so i grabbed a ball of cotton i needed and waited in the line, chatting with a lot of people i knew. it was really nice. and i managed to get a grab bag. there was a Blow Pop inside, along with other knitting accoutrements. Lisa knows how to party.

then we went to Windy Knitty, about a mile away. there, we ran into Felecia, who is one of the regulars at Sifu. i bought some alpaca, got my passport stamped, and asked Felecia if she would like to join us on our way to Knit 1. she said she did, and then we were three.

so, knit 1 isn't my favorite knitting store. the last time i went, they were very standoffish. there's a huge table in the middle of the room, and if there are people there knitting and you walk in, it makes you feel like you just walked into a secret society where you're not quite welcome. and then, to get to the shelves of yarn, you have to squeeeeeeze past the table and the people. it's a little irritating. anyway, i didn't buy anything there, but i got my passport stamped and we were on our way.

shannon and i were going to call it quits after three stores. but Felecia had planned on going to Sister-Arts in Lincoln Park. well, it was only 1pm, so why not?? away we go!

i had never been to Sister-Arts Studio before. it was really cool, the chick working was really nice, and they had amazing yarns. i bought some Shibui there and daydreamed about knitting my cardigan that i promised myself after all of my outstanding projects and commissions were done. hah. but after that store, shannon and i were done.

sunday i didn't go to any yarn stores. my loss, i guess.

monday during lunch, i went to Three Bags Full. it's in northbrook, pretty close to my work, and i have been there about three times before. i bought something, got stamped, and told her it was my 5th store. OOOOO! if you complete 5 stores, you get entered into a special raffle. they were raffling off an amazing rainbow shawl pattern and the yarn to go with it. hook me up! i filled out the little slip of paper and went back to work. i had plans after work, so i couldn't hit up any stores after that.

tuesday, i hit up Stitch(es) in winnetka. I had never been to that shop before and it wasn't too far away. i bought some yarn there, entered their raffle, got my passport stamped, and headed back to work.

i was supposed to go to three other stores on tuesday afternoon, but some unfortunate BS came up that i needed to take care of and that wiped out any plans after work. i did, however, manage to make down to Knot Just Knits in oak park. i bought some yarn (shocker), entered the raffle, got my passport stamped, and went home.

wednesday, i had an appointment after work that was going to keep my occupied until 5:30. after that, i had planned on hitting up Nina in wicker park and Loopy Yarns in the west loop. i told as much to shannon over text and she said she had planned on going to nina after her work, which ended at, conveniently enough, 5:30. so i picked her up, we battled the rush hour traffic to drive down to polk and dearborn, where Loopy Yarns is. i had been there before, but they still astonish me with their yarn collection. they had two pop-up stores in their lower level, one of which, if i could have purchased everything they had, i would have. but i managed to purchase just one skein, enter their raffle, stamp my passport, and escape with my wallet pretty much in tact.

then, it was off to Nina in wicker park. i had never been to this store before, and this would pretty much complete my tour of the chicago yarn shops. shannon and spent a lot of time here because we wanted to buy everything they had. i ended up purchasing two small balls of yarn and a pattern. unlike my previous purchases, these will be turned into fingerless mitts. and they will be amazing.

at this point it was 7:45pm. i looked through the passport to see if any stores were open later than 8. and lo and behold, there was one open until 9pm. Mosaic Yarn Studio out in Mount Prospect. it was about 20 miles away, but it was 8pm and rush hour was pretty much over. so we got on the Kennedy and zoomed out there in no time. they were having a trunk show and had wine and cheese and cookies and crackers. oh, and a shit-ton of amazing yarn. shannon and i both bought something, entered their raffle, got our passports stamped, and hit the road.

if you are keeping track at home, this adds up to 10 stores. in 5 days. i am tired. but that doesn't mean i'm going to be sitting on my ass today. no sir. today, i have 6 stores i want to try to hit in the western 'burbs. it so happens that my friends spice store is two stores away from knitche. they have cookies. :) by the end of the day, i will be past 15 stores, hopefully. tomorrow, i'm going to hit three more in the north shore area after work. that will bring me up to 19 stores. then saturday, shannon and i are heading out to hit the last one in chicago (norwood park, really) and then out the NW 'burbs to hit 4 more. then STITCHES midwest. that will make my total 24 stores, out of 30. we're fucking crazy.

yarn crawl tally:

stores: 10, 5 i have never been to before.

yarn: 11 skeins and one pattern. $142.75. maybe i shouldn't have added that up. and then there's gas. oh, well. it's a labor of love. but sunday, i'm doing fuck-all. not a damn thing. well, i may knit. ;)